Work is good for your health?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Work is good for your health?
1599
Mon, 05-15-2006 - 5:25am

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=43421
Working Mothers Healthier Than Full-time Housewives

Main Category: Women's Health / OBGYN News
Article Date: 15 May 2006 - 1:00am (PDT)

According to new research carried out in Britain, working mothers enjoy better health than full-time housewives. Despite the stress working mothers face by holding down a job, dealing with childcare, housework and striving to keep the family happy.

It appears that working mothers, when compared to full-time housewives, are less likely to become overweight, have a better level of health and a healthier relationship. The study also found that single mothers experience worse health than working mothers who have a partner and children.

You can read about this study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Team leader, Dr. Anne McMunn, University College London, said that women who combine work with children and marriage do seem to have better health than full-time housewives. Even though they may experience high levels of stress sometimes.

It is not a question of chicken-and-egg either. Dr. McMunn said it is the experience of work plus having a family that brings on the better health, not the fact that only healthier mothers decide to carry on working.

The researchers examined data on women born in 1946 from the Medical Research Council's National Study of Health and Development. The data registers their health from 1946 until they are 54. Women's health was examined, with the help of a questionnaire at the ages of 26 through to 54. Every decade, the questionnaire collects data on each woman's work history, whether she is/was married, has children, her height and weight.

The healthiest women were the ones who had all three of the following:

-- A Partner
-- Children
-- A job

Those reporting the worst health were stay-at-home mothers, followed by childless women and single mothers.

38% of stay-at-home mothers were obese when they reached their 50s, for working mothers the percentage was 23%.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-10-2003
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 11:54am
I did too. And I wasn't even that particularly smart about money at the time. I just knew that it was being *loaned* to me and that I would have to repay.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2004
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 12:00pm

I did too.

I so clearly remember sitting at the office at Rice University with a 4.3 GPA and they are telling me I don't qualify for assistance because my Mom made too much money (I was 16).

I couldn't handle the debt levels, so I passed. When you make minimum wage, the thought (to me) of paying off many 10s of thousands in debt was unbearable.

My boss at the time held 2 phDs (math & science) as did has wife. They had 12 children (Catholic). He advised that if I wanted to really learn, read. Stay away from college where they teach you what they want you to know.

I find it interesting that I made real strides in my career by building things that no one said could be done. Because I had no clue I couldn't do it :) I suppose in the end I'm more of an entrepreneur than anything else, stuck in a corporate job LOL.

Mondo

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2003
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 12:11pm
It can be done if one is sufficiently committed to laziness.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2003
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 12:13pm

Girlfriend, you trippin'.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2006
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 12:23pm

I know, it shouldn't surprise me knowing how some of my former student's lived. But, for a majority of those children, there wasn't a second parent around to do some sort of checks and balances.

I wonder what the OP brother says when he walks in from work. He's out busting his butt. I think that Mom should be held accountable for something. Especially, with 6 lives walking around that she's responsible for.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2004
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 12:33pm

It's a big wide world.

I had no idea (according to the Tom Likus show) that there are so many guys interested in nothing more than scoring stripper bootie, and so many strippers looking to get pregnant so they can land a free mealticket. And I had no idea that my marriage's happiness is dependent on how much more the DH makes than the me (which he doesn't though he's closing the gap). It's right up there with welfare recipients who have kids to get more foodstamps.

I have zero experience with any of those so it's very hard to accept that it actually happens. It actually seems kind of amusing it's so out there. If it's not, it's truly sad and pathetic.

Mondo

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2006
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 12:43pm

"I had no idea (according to the Tom Likus show) that there are so many guys interested in nothing more than scoring stripper bootie, and so many strippers looking to get pregnant so they can land a free mealticket."

If those guys are so interested in that stripper bootie, I think they deserve to be used as a meal ticket if situations arose.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2004
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 12:57pm

No, dear. Don't you know? Since women can prevent pregnancy, and abort it - there is zero responsibility to the male now. He can spread DNA around freely LOL.

There is something DH says that always sticks in my mind:

WATER SEEKS ITS OWN LEVEL

I pretty much agree, if that's what you're looking for, you deserve it when you get it.

Mondo

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 1:04pm
I was 18 when I signed. I knew I would have to pay it back. I knew when I would have to start and how much per month it would be. None of this was a guarded secret. I just...asked. I said "when do I have to start paying it back? How much will it cost a month? How many months total before I'm done?" I thought everybody did that before signing on the dotted line!
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-14-2006
Sat, 06-03-2006 - 1:35pm

No, I have a wonderful husband who is not at all like the men you describe in your posts. Do you think that what you describe is the norm? If so, I can see why you feel the way you do.

The is never very much money in my purse (nor in DH's wallet). That is what checking accounts are for and with us both having equal access to the accounts there is not reason for us to ask for/take money from each other.

You need at job like my co-workers, they watch their soaps at work.

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